Guild Wars 2

One thing I love about necro is that there is no "bread and butter" build. This class has so many ways it can be played effectively.

Example: I’m running a d/w daze build on my asura in wvw. Technobabble and warhorn 4 durations are increased by my runes of the Mesmer and sigil of paralyzation (also increases dagger 3). There have been instances where my daze+immobilize+daze have been enough to drop an enemy invader without him getting much of a chance to retaliate.

What builds do you guys run that might be a little out of the ordinary?

All of my builds are odd in some way. :-)

I love being able to mess around with a build for only a few silver. The most recent build tried to max out might in an attempt to make a warrior build. (I know, why a war, you might ask.)

I also once tried to make a bunker with max protection but that did not turn out too well due to the long CD on spectral armor and the lack of damaging utilities.

C Hanson.4056:

One thing I love about necro is that there is no “bread and butter” build. This class has so many ways it can be played effectively.

Example: I’m running a d/w daze build on my asura in wvw. Technobabble and warhorn 4 durations are increased by my runes of the Mesmer and sigil of paralyzation (also increases dagger 3). There have been instances where my daze+immobilize+daze have been enough to drop an enemy invader without him getting much of a chance to retaliate.

What builds do you guys run that might be a little out of the ordinary?

Most people create power-vampire builds which are incredibly awful, I run a Condition Vampire build on occasion that works quite well for tanking. I also used to run a condition-power hybrid D/D build that used Thieves runes. Good times.

Honestly, I have a considerable amount of builds that are odd, but useful. 36 viable for tPvP, 12 viable for WvW/PvE, and a bunch that are unviable/experimental.

C Hanson.4056:

Technobabble and warhorn 4 durations are increased by my runes of the Mesmer and sigil of paralyzation (also increases dagger 3).

Last time I checked having both the sigil and the runes is redundant.
The duration is always rounded up to the next second, so +15% and +33% will give the same result on their own as they do combined: always +1 second.

Also, Immobilize is a condition. I haven’t tested it but I’m sure it’s only affected by condition duration, not stun duration…?

Duration stacking, does it work? I am not very scientific in my measurement of effectiveness so I have not really checked to see if, say, 2 chills = 2 x duration of 1 chill, or if the second chill pushes the first off the target.

Anyone have evidence duration stacking works?

100% chill duration build. Lots of fun in 1v1s

Anchoku.8142:

Anyone have evidence duration stacking works?

Why wouldn’t it work?
Also, the in-game description of conditions always says “Stacks in intensity” (=bleeding, confusion, vulnerability) or “stacks duration” (=all other conditions).

Thx, Flow. Thought Chill was a duration stacking condi for some reason, not intensity stacking.

Been running Hybrid D/D lately. And no, i dont mean with rampager. been working pretty well and still have a decent amount of HP + toughness.

Love this build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBIhdu1IjWne3m2GDnCQSh18CVY3oCHT9A+2RH-T4AA1CtIuSdl7KzVSnsXNEZJyugDBTCeFA

I call it the Shroud Bouncer. Unlike most every shroud build, you don’t use the shroud to absorb damage unless you absolutely have to, you mostly bounce in and out of it every 4.5 seconds, as doing so gives you 65% uptime on retaliation, removes conditions, and keeps constant weakness on your target. It does amazing in 1v1, especially against thieves and mesmers.

It could be better still, with just a few different runes it could have 100% uptime on retaliation, but Spiteful Spirit is just as bugged as most necro traits and doesn’t function with boon duration.

Conncept.7638:

Love this build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBIhdu1IjWne3m2GDnCQSh18CVY3oCHT9A+2RH-T4AA1CtIuSdl7KzVSnsXNEZJyugDBTCeFA

I call it the Shroud Bouncer. Unlike most every shroud build, you don’t use the shroud to absorb damage unless you absolutely have to, you mostly bounce in and out of it every 4.5 seconds, as doing so gives you 65% uptime on retaliation, removes conditions, and keeps constant weakness on your target. It does amazing in 1v1, especially against thieves and mesmers.

It could be better still, with just a few different runes it could have 100% uptime on retaliation, but Spiteful Spirit is just as bugged as most necro traits and doesn’t function with boon duration.

But doesn’t Weakening Shroud have a 15 second internal cooldown? I’m still fairly new with Necro, but it seems like Weakening Shroud’s Enfeebling Blood’s cast time is transferred over, meaning there is no effect the instant you pop F1. But yeah, remove condition every 5 seconds is pretty sweet.

Anchoku.8142:

Thx, Flow. Thought Chill was a duration stacking condi for some reason, not intensity stacking.

Chill does stack duration.
The only condi that doesn’t is immobilized. This is a bug though.
So if you were to cast Dark Pact and Rigor Mortis in a row, then one would replace the other.

Conncept.7638:

but Spiteful Spirit is just as bugged as most necro traits and doesn’t function with boon duration.

Yes it does.
And you should know, because you have 20 in Death Magic. So your retal lasts for 3,5 seconds.

I’m also curious to know how you can perma-weakness someone with Weakening Shroud alone…?
You don’t have a staff to combo weakness, and you don’t have an off-hand dagger for Enfeebling Blood.
So with your 10 in Spite, you’ll get 11 seconds of weakness (if not cleansed) and that’s on a 15 sec cooldown.

Rare veggie pizza would get him up to 15 seconds if this is a WvW build.

I assumed it was sPvP because in his link he has a PvP amulet and 1 extra rune of the Nightmare for 25 power. In WvW you would probably take a Ruby Orb or Crest of the Soldier instead.

flow.6043:

Conncept.7638:

but Spiteful Spirit is just as bugged as most necro traits and doesn’t function with boon duration.

Yes it does.
And you should know, because you have 20 in Death Magic. So your retal lasts for 3,5 seconds.

I’m positive it does not, as I tested it myself in the mists. It stays 3 seconds no matter your gear or stat allocation. At one point I had those 30 points in death magic and +20% boon duration from gear. Still three seconds.

EDIT: Ooookay, apparently this was fixed, no idea when. Last time I tested this I had 50% boon duration, meaning I should have had 1.5 added to the original 3 second duration and therefore be breaking four seconds, which I was not. But, just tested it and apparently it works just fine. They really need to put this stuff in the patch notes…

flow.6043:

I’m also curious to know how you can perma-weakness someone with Weakening Shroud alone…?
You don’t have a staff to combo weakness, and you don’t have an off-hand dagger for Enfeebling Blood.
So with your 10 in Spite, you’ll get 11 seconds of weakness (if not cleansed) and that’s on a 15 sec cooldown.

Yeah sorry, over-exaggeration. I don’t know the exact uptime on it like I do with retaliation but I am well aware you don’t actually get 100% uptime. It is a lot though, and very helpful to the build.

I don’t know my about the syphon complaints, PvE side anyways. I can usually run amuck and pull 8+ mobs and finish at close to full health. I am hoping they do some tweaking of it though so that I can see some similar results in PvP when the hits come a lot faster and quickly outpace the syphoning.

DaisyRogers.6837:

I don’t know my about the syphon complaints, PvE side anyways. I can usually run amuck and pull 8+ mobs and finish at close to full health. I am hoping they do some tweaking of it though so that I can see some similar results in PvP when the hits come a lot faster and quickly outpace the syphoning.

Thats every necro that uses DS, not the siphon necros get itself (D2 is ok but you cannot rely on it).

Conncept.7638:

Love this build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBIhdu1IjWne3m2GDnCQSh18CVY3oCHT9A+2RH-T4AA1CtIuSdl7KzVSnsXNEZJyugDBTCeFA

I call it the Shroud Bouncer. Unlike most every shroud build, you don’t use the shroud to absorb damage unless you absolutely have to, you mostly bounce in and out of it every 4.5 seconds, as doing so gives you 65% uptime on retaliation, removes conditions, and keeps constant weakness on your target. It does amazing in 1v1, especially against thieves and mesmers.

It could be better still, with just a few different runes it could have 100% uptime on retaliation, but Spiteful Spirit is just as bugged as most necro traits and doesn’t function with boon duration.

Speaking of bugs, the trait “Decaying Swarm” simply does not work. I tested it today and it never procs. Has anyone got this trait working?

Snorcha.7586:

Speaking of bugs, the trait “Decaying Swarm” simply does not work. I tested it today and it never procs. Has anyone got this trait working?

Pretty sure it shares its cooldown with one of the other on % hp effects (it was bugged like that before), but it can proc if you get hit in DS.